Section 219.20  Office, Candidate and Party ID Numbers

 

a)         Offices and candidates that are certified by the State Board of Elections will have ID numbers assigned to them by SBEL. In most cases, office ID numbers will not change except in the event that reapportionment requires an increase or decrease in the number of Congressional Districts in Illinois. Judicial offices and statewide questions, which are unique to each election, will be created and assigned at each election.

 

b)         Candidate IDs will be assigned and distributed after the ballot placement lottery conducted pursuant to Sections 7-12 and 10-6.2 of the Election Code has been performed. It is necessary to wait for the lottery results to ensure that the ID numbers generated are in the same order as the ballot order.

 

c)         SBEL will also assign Party ID numbers/codes.

 

1)         Party Codes:

 

 

2)         New party codes will be added as needed, and SBEL will notify the jurisdictions of these codes when candidate and office ID numbers are issued.

 

3)         For users of the WinEds, Unity and GEMS tabulation systems, the party ID numbers are two digit codes to associate each candidate with the proper party.  In a primary election, the party ID must also be applied to the office. In a general election, the party ID will be 99 for all offices.

 

4)         For users of the Hart Intercivic, Inc. tabulation system, the party ID will be an abbreviated alpha code. To incorporate the code for an office in a primary election, the code should be placed after two pipes (||) following the office name.

 

For example:           UNITED STATES SENATOR ||DEM

ATTORNEY GENERAL ||REP

COMPTROLLER ||GRN

 

d)         SBEL Office and Candidate ID Entry in Tabulation Software

 

1)         GEMS Tabulation Software. The ID numbers must be incorporated into the Candidate and Contest Export ID fields in the following format:  aaaa:bb

 

A)        Contest Export ID

 

i)          a = an integer representing the State issued office ID

number.

 

ii)         b = an integer representing the State issued party ID

number.  (In a general election, this will always be "99".)

 

B)        Candidate Export ID

 

i)          a = an integer representing the State issued candidate ID

number.

 

ii)         b = an integer representing the State issued party ID

number.

 

2)         Unity Tabulation Software

 

A)        Using Unity EDM, the Candidate Alternate ID field must be entered as "PPCCCCppccccc", where:

 

i)          PP is the State Contest Party Number – 2 digits;

 

ii)         CCCC is the State Contest Number – 4 digits;

 

iii)        pp is the State Candidate Party Number – 2 digits; and

 

iv)        ccccc is the State Candidate Number – 5 digits.

 

B)        NOTE:  The ID field must be entered as a complete 13 digit code in order for eCanvass to properly recognize the numbers. Therefore, if part of the sequence has more digits available than are in the ID number, precede the ID number with zeroes in order to fill all digits/spaces.

 

3)         WinEds Tabulation Software. The ID numbers must be entered in a manner that places them in the Illinois Export Master File according to the following specifications:

 

A)        SBEL Office/Contest ID shall be placed in record type 5 in the 4^th field.

 

B)        SBEL Office/Contest Party ID shall be placed in record type 5 in the 6^th field.

 

C)        SBEL Candidate ID shall be placed in record type 6 in the 4^th field.

 

D)        SBEL Party ID shall be placed in record type 3 in the 6^th field.

 

E)        Jurisdiction Party ID shall be placed in record type 3 in the 2^nd field.

 

4)         Hart Intercivic, Inc. Tabulation Software

 

A)        Jurisdictions that use Hart Intercivic, Inc. equipment and tabulation software must use the candidate and office/contest ID numbers issued by SBEL as their primary ID numbers. ID numbers used for local offices and candidates must be in the ranges established by SBEL. Under no circumstances may ID numbers assigned to any office or candidate that is certified by SBEL be used for any local office or candidate.

 

B)        When entering Parties into the Hart system, the appropriate alpha code must be used because the Hart system is incapable of handling party ID numbers that are greater than 16.

 

e)         Write-In Candidates

 

1)         All results for candidates who filed a timely Declaration of Intent to be a write-in candidate with the proper election authority must be included in both the paper canvass and the election authority's eCanvass certification. These results must also be included when no valid votes were cast for the write-in candidate.

 

2)         Electronic Reporting of Vote Totals for Write-In Candidates

 

A)        Jurisdictions using tabulation systems that do not report vote totals for individual write-in candidates in the export files must enter the information through the eCanvass website (https://ecanvass.elections.il.gov).

 

B)        When a write-in line is printed on the ballot, the data file will reflect this by including a candidate with the name "write-in" within the respective office.

 

C)        Jurisdictions using tabulation systems capable of including individual write-in candidate totals must ensure that the candidates are properly coded to be recognized as write-in candidates.

 

i)          Hart Intercivic, Inc. Tally exports shall label the candidates as type "WI" to identify that they are write-in candidates.

 

ii)         GEMS software shall assign ID numbers in the range of 9000-9499 to write-in candidates.  See subsection (e)(1)(B) for proper candidate ID formatting.  Write-in candidates must NOT be entered manually on the website if they are included in the export file.

 

iii)        New systems certified after adoption of this Part shall identify valid write-in candidates in the master file record structure, record type 6, in the 6^th field.

 

iv)        When valid write-in votes are included in the data file, the valid vote count reported for the write-in candidate must be subtracted from the count listed for the candidate "write-in", which will then reflect only invalid write-in votes cast.

 

f)         Verification Files

All jurisdictions must upload a verification file to ensure that all ID numbers and offices are properly loaded in their election database. This verification file must be uploaded early enough (before the election) that changes to the election setup can be made and shall be created in accordance with the same procedures for creating a canvass data file.